Dustin Abbott

Dustin is a passionate photographer based out of Pembroke, ON, Canada. He does beautiful work. He mainly shoots for art prints, at events, he does portraiture, and shoots stock images. There’s an incredible story behind his fondness of Exposure. The rest of this article is from him.

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I came by my love for photography honestly. My father always had a camera in hand. He has an archive of well over ten thousand slides. One of our family pastimes was to set up the projector and watch those slides. Certain photos would pop out at me because of their fabulous rich and contrasty color. It came as no surprise that I fell in love with Exposure. Now I can recreate some of those great looks.

I’m really excited that most of the pictures shown below were taken within ten minutes of my house. Real life means that you can’t always be in exotic places, so learn to shoot where you are. I often hear, “I wish I lived in a beautiful place like you!” I do live in a beautiful place, but I want to produce beautiful art wherever I live. The secret? Get out there! Get out and scout your area. Use an eye for the unique and/or beautiful. Be willing to be out shooting at the right times too. Most of the shots shown here were taken in the early morning. Sometimes it’s 30+ below zero when the light is right. Convenient shooting times can equal the poorest light or conditions. Getting something special will cost you.

So that great shot is captured. What now? My starting point is always Lightroom. I have set up custom presets for metadata, keywords and some basic develop settings to automate the import process. I want to create a technically perfect photo, from white balance to setting white and black levels. I’ll tweak the shadows and highlights to give a broad dynamic range. Sometimes that is enough, and I’m satisfied. Other times I have a certain look in mind, so I go into Exposure.

If you’re a Photoshop guru, you can create similar looks to Exposure without it, but it takes a lot of time. The magic of Exposure is the speed at which you can do it. It takes me no more than 2-3 minutes in Exposure to achieve the look I want. I want to spend more time shooting, and less time processing. Exposure is the perfect blend of user friendliness and “tweakability”. I save even more time by developing custom presets that suit my particular tastes. My hope is that, by the time I share that picture, it will give viewers the same joy I got when watching those slides as a boy.

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Jimmy is the marketing nerd at Alien Skin. He makes workflow training tutorials, handles affiliates, writes for the blog, manages our contributing authors, governs our social media, and he is the king of swag orders. He also makes a mean cup of espresso, so if you stop by the office, remember to give him cash tips for his efforts.

5 Comments

Terry Milton June 18, 2013 at 9:48 pm

Dustin ….well done…when I headed up the art department of a Canadian magazine company for 18 plus years, Eye Candy and Alien Skin were always in my bag of tricks….what a day to be young and a passionate photographer/designer …the things available to the creative mind today is overwhelming …the only limitation is your imagination……you are doing a great job Dustin …I love what you do…sorry to see your mishap the other day …forgive me but all I could think of was …”Oh No ” I hope his photographic equipment wasn’t in the trunk”….of course I knew you where okay at that point ….hahha…..God Bless ….Terry